Read the following poem and answer the next five question by choosing the correct options:
The Coromandel Fishers
Rise, brothers, rise; the wakening skies pray to the morning light,
The wind lies asleep in the arms of the dawn like a child that has cried all night.
Come, let us gather our nets from the shore and set our catamarans free,
To capture the leaping wealth of the tide, for we are the kings of the sea!
No longer delay, let us hasten away in the track of the sea gull's call,
The sea is our mother, the cloud is our brother, the waves are our comrades all.
What though we toss at the fall of the sun where the hand of the sea-god drives?
He who holds the storm by the hair, will hide in his breast our lives.
Sweet is the shade of the coconut glade, and the scent of the mango grove,
And sweet are the sands at the full o' the moon with the sound of the voices we love;
But sweeter, O brothers, the kiss of the spray and the dance of the wild foam's glee;
Row, brother, row to the edge of the verge, where the low sky mates with the sea.
In the line "... a child that has cried all night" the poet compares a child with ...
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Wind
The line reads "The wind lies asleep in the arms of the dawn like a child that has cried all night." It is a simile: the wind, which raged all night, is now calm at daybreak, just as a child who has cried all night finally falls asleep, exhausted, in its mother's arms. The comparison tells the fishermen that the storm is over and the sea is safe.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Baby — Incorrect. Misread: the child (baby) is the thing used for the comparison; a child cannot be compared with itself.
Option 2: Water — Incorrect. Not mentioned: the line speaks of the wind lying asleep and says nothing about water.
Option 3: Wave — Incorrect. Wrong part of the passage: the waves appear later as the fishermen's "comrades"; they are not compared with a child.